Saturday, November 15, 2008

Ok, there's such a pile of stuff out there

I can be lazy and just linkbe a public servant; nay, virtually a community organizer of information, and point you eight people who read this to these things:

Lots of lawyers wonder why people don't respect them for their intrinsic worth, since they're the most important people in the country; specifically, trial lawyers:Lawyer Gerry Spence, who was awarded the CAOC Lifetime Achievement Award, told conference attendees that legal representation is essential, even more important than health care, for people.

"We have to redefine who we are: We are the most important people in America," Spence said. "There is no other profession in America that fights for freedom, that fights for what America is about, that fights for justice for ordinary people."

To make his point, Spence -- founder of the Trial Lawyers College, which trains lawyers to be more effective in the courtroom -- said to imagine that all of the doctors and healers somehow vanished.

"I want to ask you which would be more important: If all of the doctors in the country somehow disappeared or all the trial lawyers in America somehow disappeared?" he asked. "We can live without medical care, but we cannot live without justice."... Um. Yeah. Gd knows, first thing I think of when I get hurt or need help is calling a trial lawyer. Unless, y'know, I'm actually hurt or something, in which case a doctor sounds like a real good idea. It's after I'm not bleeding to death or something I look for someone to help me sue somebody else for my being a dumbass or something. Yeah. Them lawyers are REAL important, then.

Let's see, Memphis PD spent about $88,000 trying to find the ID of a blogger who was critical of the PD:The legal bill for that suit has arrived, and The Commercial Appeal reports it totals about $88,000. The city’s legal department declined giving a breakdown on the legal expenses, and the police department had no comment.

When the suit was filed earlier this year, authorities said they were upset because a picture of an undercover officer was posted on the site. It was later determined, however, that the officer’s picture was also on the police department Web site.Oh, wait, my bad; it's the people of the city who're paying almost $90k for this bullcrap. Yeah, I'm sure they think it's worth every penny.

Sen. Chris Countrywide Dodd(Fraudster-CT) is still getting a pass on his corruption, including by a lot of media:A news-talk radio station in New Haven, Connecticut, is refusing to air a spirited interview between a conservative host and the powerful chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Chris Dodd.

NBC News reports that a federal criminal investigation into possible wrongdoing by mortgage giant Countrywide Home Loans now includes scrutiny of Countrywide's VIP program that gave special mortgage deals to government officials, including Senators Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota) and Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut).

Connecticut conservative radio talk-show host Tom Scott says up until now, fellow senators and the media have not questioned Dodd about his personal scandal.Yeah, I'm going to be holding my breath until the investigation turns out to be real. And actually holds them responsible. And the media gives it the kind of coverage they did bullcrap rumors about Palin. HOLDING IT, I tell you!

This just in: Rep. Barney Fannie Mae Frank(Corrupticrat Socialist-MA) is a jackass who wants all your money:Even more persuasive, there are tons of reasons why Fan and Fred should evanesce. Their business model--publicly subsidized but privately profited firms--yields massively leveraged portfolios, incompetent but grossly compensated management, a huge lobbying establishment and political pork galore.

Of course there was no rejoicing from one of Fan and Fred's chief cheerleaders--Congressman Barney Frank. When asked about the shrinkage of Fan and Fred's portfolios, he responded: "Good luck on that." And then went on to characterize such an idea as a "sop" to the right, not a policy possibility. Simply put: It ain't going to happen on his watch.Which, of course, means he and his buttmonkeys sticking their hands deeper into our pockets to fuel his passion for this crap. Wasn't there once an anti-pickpocket device that was a kind of pocket guillotine?

Ohio needs to clean up it's damned government. Or(maybe and/or) get out a lot of rope:Kohlstrand said that the AG's office wanted access to the records so they could turn over to the national media lien information that was a public record in Lucas County. He said the national media did not have reporters in Toledo, so the attorney general's office was helping them out with public records.These people need to be fired, and then criminally prosecuted. There is NO EXCUSE for this kind of corruption. None. And I hope Joe sues the collective ass off the people and agencies involved. Maybe, just maybe, that'll get their attention.

Ah, the tolerance of believers in The One. And this crap is going on in school?

This is one brave 14 year old girl.

Immediately, Catherine learned she was stupid for wearing a shirt with Republican John McCain's name. Not merely stupid. Very stupid.

But wait! It gets better.

"One person told me to go die. It was a lot of dying. A lot of comments about how I should be killed," Catherine said, of the tolerance in Oak Park.

Note the tolerance and compassion of the JHE supporters. Yeah, these are kids but at that age they get their beliefs from their parents. Ironically, they are prolly for abortion and against capital punishment but think a 14 year old should be killed for supporting McRINO.

But students weren't the only ones surprised that she wore a shirt supporting McCain.

"In one class, I had one teacher say she will not judge me for my choice, but that she was surprised that I supported McCain," Catherine said.

Just friggin' amazing. I'd take three guesses what the teachers are 'teaching', but I probably wouldn't need two of them.

This is disturbing on multiple levels:For the second time this year, a professor at the University of Iowa has taken his own life after being accused of sexual harassment...After Miller was arrested in August, the university announced that it would require all faculty members to undergo training about sexual harassment. That process is now going on.

Asked what the university should do following this latest incident, O’Hara said that “we have to separate the issue of sexual harassment from the issue of why a professor or anybody for that matter would commit suicide in the face of kind of public disclosure of something that is personally extremely embarrassing if not humiliating. Those are two different issues — people face criminal charges all the time and don’t commit suicide. It’s not an inevitable consequence.”

O’Hara added: “We have to continue on campus to educate ourselves and to be vigilant about sexual harassment and help everyone understand that as an academic community, these things aren’t to be tolerated.” At the same time, he said that the two deaths made him wonder about the treatment of “alleged perpetrators.” It is important to remember, he said, that “being accused doesn’t mean that something happened.”.OK, anyone who thinks that ANY university hasn't already had 'watch out for sexual harassment classes' until everyone's sick of them is a moron. Second, what seems to be missing in the 'we don't understand' crap is recognition that an accusation of this type can ruin someones career even when proven innocent. And some people just can't face that. Were they guilty? Don't know. Do know that bullcrap accusations have been used against mainly men far too many times to ignore the possibility. And with the examples of lives and careers ruined, it's not surprising some would decide they couldn't deal with it. Don't say it's a good way to deal with it, but understand why it happens.

And, just to close this, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, as dishonest a name as a group every came up with, wants higher taxes on alcohol to save lives. And, in truth, to pump up the tax base:”In addition to public health implications, state governments should re-examine their alcohol excise taxes on for fiscal reasons, said George Hacker, director of Alcohol Policies Project for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.”

“Given state budgets are in the toilet bowl, it's an available source of revenue that has not been looked to for a very long time," Hacker said. "The tax increases are long overdue. The product doesn't pay its way in covering economic and social costs associated with its use."Note that progressive bullcrap: 'the product doesn't pay its way'. Kind of like the 'if you're not working and paying taxes, you won't repay the State for health care so you should die' attitude of the NHS in Britain.

I need to so something soothing, like clean guns or sharpen knives or something.

E-mail me

at elmtreeforge at att point net

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C.S. Lewis

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. - Capt. Mal

A Rifleman’s Prayer:Oh Lord, I would live my life in freedom, peace and happiness, enjoying the simple pleasures of hearth and home. I would die an old, old man in my own bed, preferably of sexual overexertion.

But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch, then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts, because doing that is good, and right, and just.

And if in this I should fall, let me be found atop a pile of brass, behind the wall I made of their corpses. Geek with a .45

"He's Black Council,", I said.

"Or maybe stupid," Ebenezar countered.

I thought about it. "Not sure which is scarier."

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day." Ebenezar McCoy

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” ― Rudyard Kipling